Design this

Being a teenager is no longer a roadblock. Actually, youthfulness is embraced in the 21st century. It is recruited. More importantly, it is accepted.

Ten years ago, if a boy no older than 15 pitched you an art layout for a CD cover, you would cringe. Many would question his authority. Others would question his choice of clothing: a zip-down sweatshirt and a pair of orange cargos. And 99.9 percent of listeners would call security.

Now the little lad next door is transforming an entertaining hobby into a multimillion-dollar corporation as you read this snippet. Even if that sounds a bit extreme — or downright uncanny — checks for 20 grand are routinely cut to Web site designers. Honestly.

Sure, hobbies such as crafting clothespin creatures and makeshift beanies rarely expand wallets. But the intricacies of the Internet fuel luxurious lifestyles, from Porsches to New York City lofts to African safaris.

But success doesn’t come so easy. Unless you’re computer-literate from the get-go, months are spent experimenting with graphic formats such as Flash and Shockwave. The new age of PCs isn’t speeding up the process, either. As broadband edges its way into more households, Web sites must adapt — becoming much more complicated — in order to maintain current visitors and garner a fresh customer base.

You could say Shirley Temple set the tone for the entire world when she broke into stardom years before she hit puberty, and you could say the same for Michael Jackson. And just like the film and recording industries, a certain degree of natural-born talent usually exists in Web designers, allowing even adolescent computer geeks to score large paychecks.

Although on the rare occasion that a client skips out on an invoice, the truly unruly Web designer could hack into their mainframe and write his own blank check. But that is a different hobby entirely.